How Better Communication Prevents Painful Turnover

This week I spoke with an expert on internal communications, which can be just as important, it turns out, as external PR. Isa Watson is the founder and CEO of Envested, a workplace engagement tool. Engagement and connection are vital for reasons both inside and outside a company. But avoiding preventable turnover may be one of the biggest incentives of all to focus strong communication inside of your business as well as without.

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A 2017 Employee Benefit News study found that it costs a third of an employee’s annual salary to find a suitable replacement. Everything from recruitment to training can affect the bottom-line impact of employee turnover. Worse still, the costs snowball the longer it takes to find a replacement for a crucial role.

To add insult to injury, the study determined that three-quarters of the reasons for turnover were “preventable,” meaning employers were getting in their own way. The top reasons the 34,000 respondents cited for leaving were career development, work-life balance, manager relationships, and compensation--all things well within a company’s control.

This is dangerous in an era when employees switch jobs more frequently. Nearly two-thirds of employees are in favor of job-hopping, meaning they’re willing to jump ship for better career prospects, money-making opportunities, or flexibility. But would they be so willing if they felt connected to their companies?

Do Engagement and Connection Trump Salary? Gallup found that a whopping 87 percent of employees aren’t engaged at work. Historically, businesses have chalked up employee loyalty to money: Employees leave because they found better pay or promotion opportunities elsewhere. A MSW Research and Dale Carnegie Training study contradicted that theory, explaining that three other factors had a stronger influence on employee engagement: an employee’s relationship with her direct supervisor, her faith in the company’s leadership, and her pride in being an employee there.

Relationships are at the center of employee engagement: If people haven’t built meaningful relationships at work, they have little to look forward to when they arrive at the office. Even what happens outside work can impact how connected an employee feels to her co-workers and company. Companies often point to employee engagement surveys, citing these as evidence that workers are happy, engaged, and connected to others.

“Here’s the thing for HR managers everywhere,”says "Marketplace” radio show host Kai Ryssdal. “We all lie on those surveys.” An estimated 21 percent--a fifth--of employees are dishonest on engagement surveys, weighing their desire to improve their circumstances against their need to keep their paycheck. And a lack of response isn’t a neutral indicator; those who avoid participating in surveys were found, in one study, to be more likely to leave their jobs.

How Can Employers Determine Who’s About to Leave? The lack of data is part of the problem, Watson maintains. “The interesting thing is that we have tons of data on employees before they’ve even joined, thanks to applicant tracking,” she explains. “But once people are in, we don’t know much about them. The biggest driver of turnover is connection, and we have a major lack of data on employees.”

This is a very undervalued piece of data, both qualitative and quantitative--it can get to the root cause of why people are leaving and help companies avoid repeating their mistakes. While most companies don’t track anything about the people they’re losing beyond age and job title, being able to identify the underlying trends can help them pinpoint who’s likely to leave before a departure takes place.

Says Watson, “If it’s common that women who get to the director level and have been there for two years leave, that’s important to know--you need more development opportunities for women at that level and more mechanisms for them to receive them.”

Jim Harter, Gallup’s chief scientist of workplace management and well-being, agrees: “Many people see the macro engagement numbers and dismiss them as not relating to them or their firm. But when you show an organization their own results, it tends to shock them. And that’s when they tend to want to do something to correct it.”

Correcting Course

So how can employers use better communication to prevent turnover? The following steps can help:

Analyze baseline engagement. Managers need to use the tools at their disposal--these can offer a baseline to look at. If a company has an intranet, does employee engagement with the platform drop off in the three months prior to giving notice? Does event attendance decline? How long do employees tend to last in particular roles? On the flip side, how many events do long-term employees attend? How engaged are they with the various platforms the company offers? Developing a scoring mechanism to determine categories--employees with high engagement, middling engagement, and low engagement--can shine a spotlight on who needs more attention.

Examine what’s been missed. While a lack of promotions is often blamed for turnover, high performers--people with a strong upward trajectory--aren’t leaving in small numbers. These are some of the most painful employees to lose, but the fact that they were set up for success but chose to seek it elsewhere sends important signals. What did the company not know about them? Are low performers leaving at the same rate? Backtracking to pick up missed breadcrumbs can offer new insights.

Empower employees to connect on the things that matter most to them.Expanding how people address employee resource groups and how they define themselves can have real-life implications. Most of Watson’s sponsors in corporate America were older white men--there was no way she would have been placed in the same employee resource group as them in most workplaces. Basing employee groups on interests--how people actually build relationships--can make a big difference.

Build the right capabilities for network management internally. Many people think they’ll earn any opportunity they want through high performance. But who can vouch for them behind closed doors? Creating networking events--such as a companywide challenge to have coffee with five people outside one’s department--can force people out of silos and increase both engagement and innovation within a company. The interwoven connection is a boon to companies and employees: “As a network gets stronger and more interconnected, it’s harder to get out, just like a spiderweb,” Watson says.

While it’s sometimes necessary as a way to eliminate stagnation, turnover is often painful for companies. By putting more focus on employee engagement and looking at the signals your employers are silently sending, companies can be proactive in preventing losses they don’t want to endure.

Information about Cheryl Snapp Conner's Content University program to help businesses and executives tell their stories better is available here.